“But don’t you tell Alaskans that we can’t do tough things” she said. “You don’t think we can fill in an oval and learn to spell Lisa Murkowski? We can figure this out. Our state’s future is on the line, and we’re going to listen to what Alaskans have to say.” — Lisa Murkowski.

It is not tough to fill in an oval and spell “Murkowski”.  It is tough in an aggregate sense, though.

Murkowski is running for re-election as a write-in candidate: It’s an uphill climb, not only against GOP nominee Joe Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams — but against out-of-state “extremists” who she claims “hijacked” the Republican Party.

I can’t find the damned speech in transcript form.  I am forced to look her up on youtube.  “Things have happened.  Events have transpired.  And there has been an outpouring of support.  When I sat down at a restaurant, and I will quit my job — I think he just said he would go part-time… to the diners… to what I have received on the emails.”
Start here.
“Mr Miller and his Extremist Positions dismantle what Senator Stevens and so many others have built over the years in Washington and I can tell you unequivocally that is not in Alaska’s best interest,  it is simply not.”

We have a theme picking uphere.  I am Alaska.  Me.
“We are such a diverse state.  You have got to have a Senator who will fight for all of our causes.  Whether you are a Republican, or whether you a Democrat, or whether you are a Libertarian, or whether you are an Independent, or none of the above.  You’ve got to be fighting for all of Alaska’s interests.  I need to be fighting for Natives and those who Build the State and for Moms who stay at home and for the Military and for Policemen and our educators and our [err] Coal miners and our Energy People!  That’s who we represent.  We don’t represent people who just look like us.  That’s not what Alaska is about!”

Coal miners and Energy People and Moms who stay at home… all look different from “Us”.  (“Us” being, of course, daughters of professional politicians.) Interesting that you can jump from “Natives” over to various professions.
The crux of a matter comes here:

” Together we can do what they say cannot be done.  Alaska is not fair game for Outside extremists. We are smarter than that. We are sharper than that and we will not be had.”

So, Murkowski dons the Mantle of the Late Ted Stevens.  I can’t find her specific reference to California Interest, the “Tea Party Express”.  First search and I get the irony meter checked up.  (Though, the one I’m interested in looking up is what everyone had to say about Joseph Lieberman after he lost to Ned Lamont.)

And, yes, as everyone who watched a fair amount of Bill Maher knows… there is a great deal of this.  And we’ll end up seeing a dribble of it pretty quickly.  Gawkingly.

The item that popped up to the top over the weekend on this was some ramblings from Michelle Malkin about the thing being “pulled out of context”, suggesting that we’re not dabbling on the part where she suggested she “didn’t like it”.

“I dabbled into witchcraft. I never joined a coven,” […]

All very good and well.  It gets kind of neat here, though.

 “I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do.  One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn’t know it. I mean, there’s little blood there and stuff like that.”
The problem now becomes not so much the problem of whether she dabbled in Witchcraft or Satanism (two very different things — unless you don’t want them to be two different things — in which case, um, good luck with your local Wiccan and Satanist communities), but how it is she couldn’t notice the disturbing signs?  What does the little blood there, and “stuff like that” add up to?  (I think she means her date was wearing a pendant with this on it). 
“We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar.”

Okay.  Here’s something.  Her Lesbian Sister tried that witch thing, and continues with that witch thing.  Or, in reality, that sort of general paganism I tend to see self described pagans practice.
On her Facebook page, Jennie notes that she “live [sic] in west hollywood ca with my girlfriend and my dogs. just try to keep it simple and live!” She notes she is self-employed as a “spiritual psychologist, actor, meditation teacher.” She describes her political stance as “conservative liberal.” As for religious views, she says she is “into spirituality, not one religion, study all religions, take what i like, leave the rest.”

We await to see if she ever had a date where she had a movie and Satanic Altar date.
But really:  Just so long as she remained celebate, it’s all good.

The thing about these things.  You know Christine O’Donnell’s opponent, Chris Coons?  He looks like an interesting guy.  Not that we necessarily want “interesting” people elected.  We can go with a lot of Grey personalities.  The man O’Donnell pushed aside, Mike Castle, strikes me as Mr. Grey.
Chris Coons is, of course, Mr. Grey when compared with O’Donnell.

The thing about O’Donnell… and this sort of “hm” sort of “meh” Politically Incorrect segment…

…
“How many of you didn’t hang out with questionable folks in high school?” she asked fellow Republicans at a GOP picnic in southern Delaware on Sunday.

I once heard a student say something about that in describing her love of Emily Dickenson.  “We all go through a phase in high school where we dress all in black, get really depressed, and write lots of really bad poetry.”  In her case, I’d say it’s a reasonably common experience, but the follow up answer is … “Speak for Yourself”. 

At a certain point, we go back to some of the old Christian Right revelations about the Evil Scrouge of Satanism rushing forward in American Youth, the Moral Panic coming out of Heavy Metal music in the 1980s, and things start to make sense.  One of the weird effects I’ve had in hearing out or reading Born Again Christian Fundamentalists and their story of redemption runs along the lines of Christine O’Donnell’s experiences at the Satanic Altar.   Apparently she had a more experimental and ribald adolsence than I did. 
How many of us haven’t had any experience with the Occult beyond playing with an Ouija Board?  (one attached to your anatomy or otherwise.)  I don’t know if Christine O’Donnell fell into a particular youth sub-culture or if her subsequent worldview full of Satanic Forces has influenced how she perceives her “dabbling” into witch-craft.

We do have the old “Alvin Greene” problem.  A few months ago, a survey showed that the most covered Senate candidate in the news media was… Alvin Greene, the indigent Democratic victory in South Carolina.  You travel over to the “Colorful” candidates.  I am, of course, part of the problem.
As before, I point to Roxanne Conlin.  Interesting candidate.  In another election cycle, she would have a shot — she appears to be at the end of the Republican Senatorial Campaign website on who registers well enough to bother tackling. 

Here again, maybe the Republican equivalent in terms of Republicans with the same fortune… here’s the Republican Senate candidate in Maryland.  And he has an ad.  Really.

That’s a bad ad.

Another bad political advertisement:

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